Chapter Seven
Once in the airplane, I was quick to claim the co-pilot seat next to Hank. Not only was I fully qualified to fly, it also meant I was as far away from Erik as it was possible to be and still be on board. And I ignored Hank's all too knowing smirk.
While we flew, we chatted, simply enjoying being together. I told him some more about the school, and moaned a bit about Lotta and her attitude issues, and he told me about his work with Mr. Stark and the girl he was seeing, Janet. We talked constantly, to avoid thinking.
Until Charles interrupted. "Bianca, you need to see this."
Hank and I exchanged a worried glance, but neither of us knew what he wanted. But I figured it out as soon as I opened the door to the main cabin. "Madonna mia. What do you think you're doing?"
Lotta looked utterly unrepentant. "Helping you bring Alex home. What do you think you're doing?"
Logan snorted back a chuckle, while Erik smirked. My glare wiped that right off his face. "Why, in the name of all that's holy, did you sneak onto this plane?"
"Because I can help save Alex!" she cried. "And before you try saying I don't have any combat powers, you know Nonno got trainers for me, just like he did for you. So, I can take care of myself. And I managed to get past Professor Chuck, so that ought to count for something."
That brought me up short. "How did she manage that?" I asked him, entirely done with the whole situation.
Charles had the decency to look chagrined, at least. "She's been singing in her head for the last eighteen hours or so. She does that often, to keep me out, I presume, so I didn't think anything of it. Until it didn't get any fainter the farther we got from the school. Erik found her hiding in the bathroom."
I sighed, fighting the familiar urge to beat my head against the nearest hard object. "Can we take her back?"
"Hank just informed me that we've just passed the fuel point of no return," he replied regretfully. "And time is of the essence for Alex."
"We could leave her in Los Angeles with Lucia," Moira suggested.
I nodded. Rubbing my temples didn't seem to do any good against the headache I had building, but it didn't hurt to try.
"You can't just leave me with a perfect stranger!" Lotta screeched.
I rolled my eyes. "She's family. You've even met her."
Then, she landed a low blow. "You know Nonno wanted me to stay with you. He said it was safest for me with you."
"He didn't know I would be going into a war zone." Still, she was right. And we both knew it, unfortunately. "Fine, but you will do exactly as I say. You will listen to all of us adults. And you will not be a problem, or so help me, you will be grounded until you turn thirty. Do you understand?"
"You're not my mother," she shot back. "You can't ground me."
"Watch me," I ground out.
Something in my face must have convinced her, because she reluctantly nodded a moment later. Since I knew she would never go back on her word, I relaxed a bit, just a tiny bit, and turned back to the cockpit. But Lotta's next words stopped me in my tracks. "So, you're the stupido che ferisce Bianca."
"He speaks Italian, Lotta," I groaned, wanting to hide in a very small hole. Forever.
"Il perfetto!" she chirped. "That makes this even easier!"
"You're sitting by me." I hauled her up to sit at the very front of the cabin. "And you can stay over there," I told Erik. "I don't need you filling her head with nonsense." I ignored the stricken look on his face, the one that had been there since Lotta spoke to him.
That ended up being the longest flight I'd ever been on. With the exception of Hank and Moira, I wanted to kill every person on that plane by the time we landed. Lotta pestered me the whole time, asking me about Erik and commenting on his looks in both English and Italian. Charles and Logan were both far too amused with her antics, Logan even encouraging her at times. My glare did nothing to stop him. And Erik⦠Well, Erik was simply there. That was enough of a reason for homicidal thoughts.
Lucia met us at a restaurant with all the necessary paperwork. She'd even had the foresight to bring a few blank ones, just in case, so I didn't have any real excuse to leave Lotta with her. Other than not taking a teenager into a war zone, but I'd already done that once, so I couldn't even use that. "You won't have to do any shows, either," she promised me. "They've got a schedule already, so no one will be looking for you to perform. This will just get you into the country."
That was one worry off my back. "Thank you for this. I owe you one."
"No, you don't," she grinned at me. "That's what family is for. Have you told Don Aurelio where you're going?" At my panicked look, Lucia laughed. "You forgot."
"I didn't forget, so much as didn't want to bother him," I hedged.
"You forgot," Lotta corrected.
"Why don't you go over with the others for a moment?"
Lotta grinned. "Gladly." She skipped over to the other table and plonked herself down next to Erik before I could realize my mistake.
Lucia was also far too entertained by my predicament. At least she was polite enough to say nothing about it. "I'll call Atlantic City. With the way things are going over there, I'll probably only be able to leave a message anyway, so hopefully you'll be back before he finds out you've put yourself and Lotta in danger again."
"One can only hope."
After lunch, the plane was refueled and ready to go. We flew to Hawaii, where Charles had already arranged accommodations for us for the night. Then, bright and early the next morning, we flew the last leg of the journey into Vietnam, landing in Camp Carroll, Alex's base.
Lucia had informed us that we were arriving the same day as another USO arrival, so it was the perfect cover. No one really paid us much attention beyond a cursory welcome. And then we managed to blend in, thanks to the uniforms Moira arranged for us. It was the first time I'd ever been grateful that Lotta looked far older than her seventeen years.
Charles picked out Alex's commander's mind from the mass, learning his unit's last mission. "The rest of his unit is here," he gasped, grabbing Moira's hand as his eyes flew open. "They're in the quarantine tent."
I was moving before he'd finished speaking. It wasn't hard to find the right tent; it was the one with the big red cross on it. The two guards in front didn't look terribly inclined to let us in, until Lotta hummed a few bars, just loud enough for them to hear. And instantly, the soldiers relaxed their stance. One even held the tent flap for us.
Sparing a second to give Lotta an approving nod, I looked around. And I understood exactly what kind of unit Alex had been in. From the man with the spikes instead of hair, the one with warty-looking skin and huge eyes encased in goggles, and the one with what looked like a tattoo over his eye, they were all mutants. Suddenly, I understood Alex's disappearance far better, with a sickening drop of my stomach.
"Excuse me, this is a quarantined area," the medic, who was loading vials of blood into a case, told us sharply. "You can't-"
"Sleep," Charles ordered, and everyone but the three mutant soldiers dropped to the ground where they stood. The three stood up immediately.
"You Xavier?" the spiky one asked.
"I am. We're looking for Alex Summers."
"Summers told us what you could do. We didn't believe him," Spike said, somewhat in awe.
A rustle at the flap of the tent drew our attention. The officer who walked in was still talking to the sentries. "I'm just giving my men a proper sendoff." But once his head was turned forward, he froze.
"Raven?" Charles asked incredulously.
The man, or Raven, apparently, shook her head, walking toward us, but carefully ignoring Erik. And me. And Hank. "I don't know how you found out, Charles, but we've got to get these men out of here."
"We're going home," the tattoo one protested.
"That's not where the Army is sending you," she countered.
"Let's go, gentlemen." Another man entered the tent, leading an additional four men. He stopped when he saw us. "What exactly are you doing in here?"
"We're taking these men home," I said, pasting on a cheery smile. "They've done their duty, and now it's time for them to go home."
"Not yet, it isn't," the new man argued. "I have orders for them to come with me."
"Your men are not military," Raven pointed out.
"Private outfit," he smirked, handing her printed orders. "We're authorized to remand these men."
"These troops are going home," Raven insisted.
"Well, Colonel, you don't have jurisdiction in this matter." I really wanted to punch him in his smug face. Then, in a flash, his smug grin suddenly shifted to something far more wary. "What happened to those men?" he asked, pulling out his gun and gesturing to the fallen medics.
Erik used his power to rip the gun from the man's hands. "Charles, it might be a good time to do something," he said, stopping the bullets from the other guns from hitting the rest of us.
Without further thought, I started singing. There was no way I was going to let this man stop us from getting my kid. But Lotta started at the same time, somewhat countering my attempts to pacify with her attempts to get them to turn their guns on one another.
"Sleep," Charles ordered again, much louder than the last time.
The new soldiers all dropped, with their leader the last one. "Alright, it's time to go," Moira ordered.
The three mutant soldiers looked hesitant, until Logan unsheathed claws I hadn't known he had. "If you want to go be lab rats for a sadistic psychopath, stay here. Otherwise, come with us." The three of them looked from his claws to his face, then back to his claws, then agreed to come with. Logan put the claws away with a grim grin, then took in a deep breath, like he was trying to keep control of himself. But I didn't have much time to worry about him just yet.
"Where are we going, then?" Ink asked.
"Grab your gear and follow us," Erik ordered.
"Act natural, like you're really going home, just like you thought," I added. Then, mentally to Charles, I asked, "These soldiers are going to remember us when they wake up."
Charles answered, but spoke aloud to all of us. "No, they won't. Stryker and his men will remember that these men were gone when they arrived, and the medics will remember receiving new orders for these men to be sent home. But we have to leave, now. Alex is being held at a black ops site forty kilometers away. He's alive, for now, but won't be for much longer if we don't hurry."
AN: And we have the next chapter, and probably my least favorite mutant. Yes, Raven is necessary, unfortunately. But don't worry, anyone, (cough*brigid1318*cough) Hank has moved on. And that's not so much a spoiler as a reassurance, but I'm not giving anything else away! Thanks for reading, and a big thanks to brigid1318 for your dedicated reviewing! It's so nice to get a review from an author I love!
P.S. I can't believe I forgot the translation again! Sorry, guys! Lotta tells Erik "You're the stupid guy who hurt Bianca." And then "Perfect!" but you probably figured that part out :)
